Allentown schools chief to retire in June 2010

Karen S. Angello, who has guided the struggling Allentown School District with a stern hand and a fierce work ethic since taking over as superintendent in 2002, will retire at the end of the 2009-10 school year, ending more than four decades as an educator.

She told the school board at its meeting Thursday night she is giving the one-year notice to ensure a smooth hand-off from her administration to the next.

"I will work with you in any way I can to assist in my transition," said Angello, 66. "I want this to be seamless."

Her announcement came as the board approved a $228.9 million, no-tax-increase budget for the next school year.

The board voted 7-0, with members Joanne Jackson and Donna-Marie Daday absent, to accept Angello's retirement as of June 30, 2010. She will earn $163,105 in her final year with the district. Angello said she and her husband plan to stay in the city after she retires.

Board President Robert E. Smith praised Angello for showing "tremendous leadership" during her tenure.

"You're basically a workaholic," said Smith, who added she could often be found working on weekends and well past midnight.

He said Angello was "vastly underpaid, not even in the top 50 in the state." Then, drawing laughs from other board members, he added: "I'm a Republican. I can't believe I'm saying that."

During the 2009-10 school year, Angello said, she plans to focus on continuing to improve academic achievement as well as strengthening alternative education and the district's gifted program.

In 2002, Angello beat out two other candidates to replace Diane Scott as head of the Allentown district, Pennsylvania's fourth largest and one of its most troubled.

When Angello arrived, the district was facing a possible state takeover because nearly half of its students failed tests to determine whether they could meet academic requirements.

By 2004, though, test scores in the district had improved enough that Allentown's schools were removed from the state's list of the worst performers.

After beginning her career as an elementary special education teacher in Colorado Springs, Colo., Angello held a series of administrative jobs, including stints as a superintendent in South Carolina and Massachusetts.

There have, however, been some rocky points in her time in Allentown.

In October 2006, a federal lawsuit was filed claiming a student at Central Elementary School had raped four first-graders over several months in 2003-04 and that administrators, teachers and nurses assigned to the school knew of the assaults but failed to notify police.

Over the subsequent months, parents blasted the district's handling of the case, and many called for Angello to either resign or be fired. The district soon tightened its rules for reporting abuse. The federal lawsuit is ongoing.

Angello said Thursday that safety has been carefully studied and improved, noting that most of the district's schools have security officers. The district works closely with the Allentown Police Department, she said.

Angello is the second area superintendent this year to announce her departure. In April, Joseph Lewis, head of the Bethlehem Area School District, said he will step down in the fall.